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Two weeks ago, NotCo closed a financing round of US $ 118 million dollars and is preparing to land in the United States. Meanwhile, in Rapel, one of his co-founders has other plans in mind for him, such as promoting rural schools in the community in Region IV and a project with the OAS.
The change in the LinkedIn profile of Pablo Zamora, one of the three founding partners of NotCo, went unnoticed. Few know that since the beginning of March the Doctor in Biotechnology of the University of Santiago ceased to be the scientific director of the company, and that now, instead, he is the senior scientific advisor. Or rather, an expert advisor. His position, a key one in the development of the fastest growing biotech startup in Latin America, is now in the hands of the German Matthias Schmalisch.
From his home in Culiprán, a rural valley, near Rapel in Region VI, Zamora explains: “Right now my priority is in the development of innovation in the region, not just in the intercontinental expansion of NotCo.”
While he plans his next steps in the world of education and agronomy, his former partners Matías Muchnick and Karim Pichara fine-tune the details of the landing in the United States, where they will be based in New York and San Francisco. “Pablo has other interests that did not coincide with mine or Karim’s,” adds Muchnick.
Why would an entrepreneur who founded a company like NotCo decide to step aside at a time like this?
Zamora stays in Chile
In 2009 Pablo Zamora (39) went to study a post-doctorate at the University of Davis and there he pursued a career for nine years. There he became a senior scientist, was a professor and directed research projects in plant genomic sciences as Associate Director at the Center for Innovation in Life Sciences of said university. His first child was also born in the United States.
He says that when he arrived in Chile in January 2015, it was difficult for him to settle. Despite this, he and his wife agreed that they wanted to plant here. They had their networks, their family, and the ability to further develop professionally. “Although our experience in NotCo was extraordinary, I have always had the focus on the development of the local ecosystem, on what happens in the region, so now I would not go to the United States again in any way.
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That is why at the beginning of this year, when no one, only the founders of the firm knew about the international leap that was coming, Zamora prepared his departure. It happened after a trip that their partners made to San Francisco, a journey in which they met their current investors, the same ones that made NotCo the Chilean firm that has raised the most foreign capital.
Talk about “style differences” and “other priorities.” But it completely rules out “conflict” or “fights.” In fact, he clarifies that “in my new role, I continue to have ties with the company and very good vibes with the team.” And he adds: “I am not active in the day-to-day operation, I do not go to the office, but I participate in consultancies when the team requires it.”
Muchnick agrees: “We are in different stages of life. The undertakings have a process and the landing in the United States was coming. Karim and I were willing to settle in the new offices and for Pablo it was not a priority ”.
In this way, they designed an exit in stages. He will remain as a counselor for a time. The process is still open.
The rural educational project in Culiprán
The UC Davis plant genetics expert, biochemist and Ph.D. in Biotechnology did not start at NotCo.
Today he receives dozens of calls with requests that he prefers to put a stop to. His focus is on continuing to lead AptaBuilder, a program designed by the Andes Pacific Technology Access Transfer hub, which promotes the creation and development of technology-based ventures “Made In Chile” with a capital injection of up to 60 million dollars.
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One of the most recent projects of Zamora and that has him excited, he assures, is his role as advisor on innovation and entrepreneurship issues at the Organization of American States (OAS), with which he is developing a very close relationship to help execute policies and programs to stimulate innovation ecosystems in the region. This will mean concrete jobs in Washington in the short term.
In turn, it participates in 3 directories of technological scientific companies that, for the moment, it prefers to keep in reserve.
Part of his time is also dedicated to conducting MadeInnChile an innovation program on TXS, an online radio dedicated 100% to science and technology issues, and as a panelist for the All You Need is Lab program on radio Usach.
But what has it most “packed” is his active participation with a group of professional attorneys and his wife, Paulina Montecinos, who is an expert in educational innovation, in the curricular development of the rural school in the Culipran community where she studies her son and 10 other companions.
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The work, Zamora confesses, has motivated him, because it involves three of his great passions: science, biology and technology. “We are promoting that students have greater access to gardens, laboratories and a type of knowledge that rarely reaches rural areas far from Santiago.”
In his spare time, he says, he plays sports. He likes squash, road biking and trekking, all activities that he has been able to resume little by little with his lack of refinement.
The German replacement
And who replaces Pablo? In order to find a brain to fill the position that heads the firm’s scientific area, in April NotCo partners hired a head hunter in the United States. Thus they came to the name of Matthias Schmalisch, a German, Harvard Phd with over 20 years of experience in molecular microbiology. He, unlike Zamora, will not be a partner.
Before being recruited by the Chileans, Schmalisch worked at Intrexon, a US biotechnology company.
The focus of his work will be on reformulating one of the products sold in Chile, but focused on local taste. Which one? It could be cheese or mayonnaise, connoisseurs say. But there is nothing confirmed.
For his part, Matías Muchnick, CEO and co-founder of the company, left on October 15 with his girlfriend to settle in New York. He still does not lease an office. What he is clear about is that he wants to open a headquarter in the Meatpacking District neighborhood, one of the city’s fashionable sectors and where Google’s offices are also located.
On the west coast of the United States, Karim Pichara will make his arrival. The PUC doctor in computing and the brain behind Notco’s machine learning and technology, will be installed in January in the offices that the company opened 5 months ago in the Mission District neighborhood in the heart of San Francisco, California.
Pichara will join the work that 8 other researchers have already been doing since April. And she will work side by side with the German.
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